Admittedly I am not a fan of the Graphic Novel genre and I had missed the whole TinTin phenomenon. The first time I heard of the “Adventures of TinTin” was when it was referenced in a novel titled “The Winter Rose” by Melanie Dobson. In that book, one of the young characters (Elias, age 12) is a devoted fan of the series and uses the hero’s vocabulary and philosophy as a guide. So I went in search of information and found that the series originated in 1930s Belgium drawn by Hergé (Georges Prosper Remi). There was a  total of 24 original titles in the series published from 1930 to 1976. The series is very much “of its time “ and contains some dated ideas, language and was anti-socialist with a right leaning philosophy. 

In this first volume, we are introduced to TinTin as a traveling journalist from Belgium. He travels with Snowy, his white wire fox terrier. Snowy is much the more practical of the two, making sure they have comfortable accommodations, food, looks ahead for potential hazards and he really doesn’t like rats. In this volume, TinTin is sent to the Soviet Union to report on conditions in the country under Lenin. He deals with Soviet secret police who want to keep out foreign journalists, death threats, false imprisonment, misleading information on Russia’s economic and social conditions and suppression of free elections. 

The art is black and white in this version with clean lines, although I believe there are versions In color. The action was intriguing and with several scenarios the book was long (286 pages). And the dog could have had a series of his own.  The language, attitudes toward certain people, and philosophy is not “politically correct” and must be considered a product of the time it was created. I did enjoy the book—especially the dog—and can see the series as an occasional change of pace reading.